certain feelings and volitions, such as self-love, the sense of justice, tlie social priiici[)le, parental and filial affection. These, although not I'sseiitial to man, are nevertheless found in all men, before and after the fall. (4.) The peculiar dispositions of individual men, which are accidental, that is, they do not belong to humanity as such. They may be present or absent ; they may be innate or acquired. Such are the taste for music, painting, or poetry ; and the skill of the artist or the mechanist ; such also are covetousness, pride, vanity, and the like ; and such, too, are the graces of the Spirit, humility, meekness, gentleness, faith, love, etc. As the taste for music is neither an act nor a substance, so pride is neither the one nor the other. Nor is the maternal instinct an act ; nor is benevo- lence or covetousness. These are immanent, abiding states of the mind. They belong to the man, whether they are active or dormant, whether he is awake or asleep. There is something in the sleeping artist wliich renders it certain that he will enjoy and execute what other men can neither perceive nor do. And that something is neither the essence of his soul nor an act. It is a natural or acquired taste and skill. So there is something in the sleeping saint which is neither essence nor act, which renders it certain that he will love and serve God. As therefore there are in the soul dispositions, principles, habits, and tastes which cannot be regarded as mere acts, and yet do not belong to the essence of the soul, it is plain that the doctrine of original or concreated righteousness is not liable to the objection of making moral character a substance.
Pelagians teach that Man was created Mortal.
The second distinguishing feature of the Pelagian or Rationalistic doctrine as to man's original state, is that man was created mortal. By this it is meant to deny that death is the consequence or penalty of transgression ; and to affirm that Adam was liable to death, and certainly would have died in virtue of the original constitution of his nature. The arguments urged in support of this doctrine are, (1.) That the corporeal organization of Adam was not adapted to last forever. It was in its very nature perishable. It required to be constantly refreshed by sleep and renewed by food, and would by a natural and inevitable process have grown old and decayed. (2.) That all other animals living on the earth evince in their con- stitution and structure that they were not intended by their Creator to live on indefinitely. They were created male and female, designed to propagate their race. This proves that a succession of in.hvid- uals, and not the continued existence of the same individuals, was
116 PART II. Ch. v. — original STATE OF MAN.
the plan of the Creator. As this is true of man as well as of other animals, it is evident, thej say, that man also was from the begin • nino;, and irrespective of sin, destined to die. (3.) An argument is drawn from what the Apostle teaches in 1 Cor. xv. 42-50'. It is there said that the first man is of the earth earth}' ; that he had a natural body (a o-w/xa i/ru^tKov) as opposed to a spiritual bod-v (tlie <TaJ/xa Trviv/jLaTiKov') ; that the former is not adapted to immor- tality, that flesh and blood, i. e., the o-w/xa iI/vxlkov, such as Adam had when created, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. From this account it is inferred that Adam was not created for immortality, but was originally invested with a body from its nature destined to decay.
Answer to the Pelagian Arguments.
With regard to this subject it is to be remarked that there are two distinct points to be considered. First, whether Adam would have died had he not sinned ; and second, whether his body as orig- inally formed was adapted to an immortal state of existence. As to the former there can be no doubt. It is expressly asserted in Scripture tliat death is tlie wages of sin. In the threatening, " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," it is plainly implied that if he did not eat he should not die. It is clear there- fore from the Scriptures that death is the penal consequence of sin, and would not have been inflicted, had not our first parents trans- gressed. The second point is much less clear, and less important. According to one view adopted by many of the fathers, Adam was to pass his probation in the earthly paradise, and if obedient, was to be translated to the heavenly paradise, of which the earthly was the type. According to Luther, the effect of the fruit of the tree of life of which our first parents would have been permitted to eat had they not sinned, would have been to preserve their bodies in perpetual youth. According to others, the body of Adam and the bodies of his posterity, had he maintained his integrity, would have undergone a change analogous to that which, the Apostle teaches us, awaits those who shall be alive at the second coming of Christ. They shall not die, but they all shall be changed ; the corruptible shall put on incorruption, and the mortal shall put on immortality. Two things are certain, first, that if Adam had not sinned he would not have died ; and secondly, that if the Apostle, when he says we have borne the image of the earthly, means that our present bodies are like the body of Adam as originally constituted, then his body no less than ours, required to be changed to fit it for im- mortality.